Responding to the question “Is it the Administration’s position that the status quo at the Temple Mount has been broken?” State Department spokesperson Admiral John Kirby responded:

MR KIRBY: Well, certainly, the status quo has not been observed, which has led to a lot of the violence.

Shortly thereafter Kirby tweeted a “clarification”:

Clarification from today’s briefing: I did not intend to suggest that status quo at Temple Mount/Haram Al-Sharif has been broken.

— John Kirby (@statedeptspox) October 15, 2015

While no one implied Israel forced this retraction, Haaretz’s lede read:

U.S. Department of State Spokesman John Kirby has been forced to retract a comment he made on Wednesday that Israel had violated the status quo on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.